A county judge ruled [ACLU press release] Friday that Kansas must count thousands of votes from people who registered without providing citizenship documents. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach had imposed [AP report] a rule that directed local election officials to not count votes for state and local offices from people who registered to vote at a state motor vehicle office without providing proof of their US citizenship. The rule would have allowed election officials to count the votes from this demographic for federal offices. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued [materials report] on behalf of three prospective voters shortly after the rule was approved by a state board. Approximately 17,600 people “registered at motor vehicles offices without providing citizenship papers.” Fifty thousand people may be affected in November as the judge plans to revisit the issue on September 21 ahead the US Election Day. District Judge Larry Hendricks said in reference to voting that “there is no right that is more precious in a free country”.

Issues relating to immigration and voting in elections have been hotly contested. In April Assistant Professor Michael Morley at Barry University School of Law discussed [JURIST op-ed] a Supreme Court ruling that dealt with voting rights and illegal immigration. Last November New Jersey lawmakers advanced a bill [JURIST report] that allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain New Jersey driver’s licenses. Last January the US House of Representatives passed [JURIST report] a $40 billion funding bill for the Department of homeland Security that included amendments to repeal two key facets to President Barack Obama’s immigration action. In 2014 Obama announced [JURIST report] executive actions on immigration that would allow 4.7 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the US.